Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 38
Another notice of the same date was even more effusive and
emphasised the national angle more strongly, while touching on the
contemporary antiquarian interest in older music:
The musical amateur, the man of refined taste, and the admirer of
ancient music, will this evening gratify their feelings beyond their
most sanguine expectations by the unrivalled performance of the
celebrated Courtney on our favourite national instrument, the
Union Pipes... 107
A management advertisement speaks of ‘The Bagpipes by Mr.
Courtney from the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, his first
Appointment’. 108 It is noticeable that his Irish management, unlike
his London promoters, frequently advertise him as playing
‘bagpipes’. Since it was, as said, ‘our favourite national instrument’,
there was no need to camouflage it in Dublin as there had been in
London, but rather it was a good business move to draw attention to
its national familiarity. On the other hand the new and fashionable
London term for the pipes is also employed, although not the piper’s
London stage name.
Courtney was once again an undoubted hit: a review speaks of ‘the
engaging novel[t]y of C’s superior performance on the union pipes, a
novelty sufficient of itself to fill a house, for he has to boast the
admiration of all the best judges in London for his masterly
execution, his delicacy yet power of tone, and for his affecting
manner on that instrument.’ 109 Another states that ‘Courtney, the
celebrate[d] performer on the Bagpipes... has brought full houses...
nothing can exceed the fineness of his tones, and the extent and
variety of them could not be surpassed... on any instrument’. 110 Yet
another says
107
Hibernian Journal, Dublin, 4 Jan. 1793.
108
Hibernian Journal, Dublin, 7 Jan. 1793.
109
Hibernian Journal, Dublin, 7 Jan. 1793.
110
Dublin Evening Post, Dublin, 8 Jan. 1793.